Budget Direct takes ‘boojay boojay’ out of this world

Insurance company Budget Direct is to retire its quirky couple of the French accented Michelle and her older – presumably – partner Michael in favour of animated aliens.

And the first ad in the new campaign pays tribute to the “Boojay boojay” line with a pastiche of the shower ad.

New logo

The campaign from the low cost insurance company will see the company push a new branding – masterminded by Hans Hulsbosch – as a “Simply Smarter Insurance” provider and also feature a new logo and website.

The new ad campaign sees Budget Direct leave behind Michael and Michelle — a couple the company says have an ‘indefinable relationship’ — and replace them with aliens Zeek and Zia.

Old logo

According to the company’s announcement Zeek and Zia are “the highly intelligent alien couple who live next door”.

The brand has always declined to explain the relationship behind the couple as it added to the mystery of it.

The old ad:

“Initially there was never any brief that said we wanted to change characters or that we even thought we needed characters. It was all about communicating the smarter way we provide insurance,” Jonathan Kerr, director of marketing and digital at Budget Direct, told Mumbrella.

“It just turned out that we liked the idea of aliens with higher intelligence, so to speak, being the ones to figure it out. We are excited about the new campaign, we are also proud of the previous campaign and know many people have enjoyed singing our song and so we wanted to celebrate that we had this wonderful campaign,” he said.

“Therefore the aliens live next door to everyone else and part of them discovering Budget Direct is singing our song.”

The TV campaign will go to air on Sunday and follows a teaser campaign run online since August 5. The company said the aim of the campaign was to highlight Budget Direct’s points of difference in the market.

“We wanted a break-out logo, campaign and positioning that clearly differentiated us from the old school companies, while maintaining the brand personality,” said Kerr.

The ad was made by production house Liquid Animation.

Hulsbosch, founder of Hulsbosch – Communication By Design, said: “The concept redefines the tone of insurance advertising in this country and permits Budget Direct to clearly stand apart.”

Nic Christensen worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2016, in roles including deputy editor and media & technology editor.
He is former media writer for The Australian and has also worked as a reporter for The Daily Telegraph and senior producer for Radio 2GB.

If you have a business model that allows you to spend shit loads on advertising and you don’t change your advertising around enough then your ads (no matter how shit) are going to be recognized (low involvement processing).

The opportunity cost you’re paying by doing this crap is staggering. Get a creative agency get an interesting idea and make more money.

1. We’re talking about it.
2. It stands out.
3. Punters know the words.
4. They know which brand it’s for
5. It’s newer than the last version, but doesn’t flush the millions spent on establishing a memory structure down the toilet.

While it would be amazing if every ad could be as cinematic as Citizen Kane, sometimes you just need to advertise the fucking brand.

In the old version, the water was running upstage of the actress who was rubbing her pre-wetted hair, but not actually washing it. He must have taken all the hot water for shaving.

In the new version, neither human was available so they used animated cartoon.
Either the cartoonist couldn’t draw hair, or they decided to do a skin wash instead.
I didn’t get the relevance of that, or the dry shaving which was made to look like wet shaving.

Hang on……could it be trying to say: With eyes wide open, keep a cool head and avoid close shaves when driving a budget car?

i have to agree with Shamma – i watched this and thought WTF?! and this was after i’d seen a poster with one of those creepy aliens at the train station, with no logo or reference to the brand! I think this is an opportunity missed – aliens being smarter is a very thin connection IMO…

I’ve a sneaky feeling that the original ad was pulled because it wasn’t really PC to have a sexy young lass obviously under 25 years of age, showering in the same bathroom as some guy who looks much older… You can just see some pious souls tut tutting at the thought and contacting Budget with a Mary Whitehouse style moan… Get them pesky aliens off me… Argggghh… Not again.